I find it quite hard to believe you couldn't do even better if you were a single mind perceiving what the ants did and controlling them (which is how you are set up in this game).
You heard about the Berkeley Overmind? A single mind has a limited amount of capacity to focus on events simultaneously. Emergent intelligence does not.
But the ants individually can't simulate a single large mind (for one thing, they wouldn't have all the information it would have).
Given the total neural processing power available to the ants, I'd dare say that their capacity to solve problems is far greater than you're giving them credit for. Also, there's a non-trivial chance that this is already how individual minds operate -- I'm speaking of the Society of Mind hypothesis.
You heard about the Berkeley Overmind?
Yes.
A single mind has a limited amount of capacity to focus on events simultaneously.
This is a statement about your mind (ok, human minds), not about minds in general. There's no law saying that minds can't have multiple simultaneous trains of thought.
Emergent intelligence does not.
A unified mind can always simulate separate agents. Separate agents cannot simulate a unified mind. If the separate agents all have simultaneous access to the same information that the unified mind would, then they cease being se...
Aichallenge.org has started their third AI contest this year: Ants.
I mentioned this in the open thread, and there was a discussion about possibly making one or more "official" LessWrong teams. D_Alex has offered a motivational prize. If this interests you, please discuss in the comments!